"I phoned the State
Department ... Suddenly someone picked up the receiver and
then I heard a voice saying in perfect Israeli Hebrew:
»Good Morning, how can I help
you?«"

Notice to the American
people
and the rest of the world

Maariv (daily
paper of Israel) - 2. 9. 1994:

The Jews Who Run Clinton's
Court

By Avinoam Bar-Yosef

Several weeks ago
the rabbi of "Adath Ysrael" synagogue in Cleveland Park,
Washington, dedicated his Sabbath sermon to the Jewish
cultural and political center which is being formed in
America:

"For the
first time in American history," the rabbi said, "we no
longer feel that we live in diaspora. The U.S. has no longer
a government of Goyim (Gentiles), but an administration in
which the Jews are full partners in the decision making at
all levels. Perhaps the aspects of the Jewish religious law
connected with the term 'government of goyim' should be
re-examined, since it is an outdated term in the U.S."

Indeed, as far as
the Jews are concerned, President Bill Clinton contributed
towards a real change in the Administration's outlook,
having concluded a series of changes in enhancing Jewish
power beginning during under President Reagan and his
Secretary of State, Schultz. True, the Jewish political
influence was also evident in America of the previous
decades. We have already seen a Jewish Secretary of State,
Kissinger, enjoying the confidence of President Richard
Nixon and there were Jewish Cabinet members under Carter.
However, they were usally the exceptions testifying to the
rule. Especially, pious Jews were hardly ever appointed to
participate in political work concerning the Middle
East.

The picture has
now totally changed and not only about the Middle East. For
example, every morning at about 6:00 o'clock, several staff
cars travel from the CIA center to the White House with
senior officers of the American intelligence community, who
are about to present to the president and to the four top
staffers a PDB - President's Daily Briefing - the term for
the most exclusive report in Washington. the document,
consisting of 5-7 pages, is often accompanied by top secret
satellite photographs transferred by the Pentagon. It is
composed in the course of the night by the best American
intelligence experts who analyze the telegrams and reports
arriving from the CIA's world-wide network of agents. It
contains the most sensitive information regarding
developments around the world. Its uniqueness, compared to
other American intelligence documents, lays in the fact that
it almost always indicates the source of the information,
whether the source is tapping by means of satellite. If
Clinton is in Washington, he holds a short discussion on the
contents of the document with the five other addressees:
Vice-President Al Gore, National Scurity Advisier ("Sandy")
Berger, and National Security Adviser to the Vice-President,
Leon Perth. Two of the addressees, Berger and Perth, are
warm Jews. They have reached posts that are extremely
sensitive for the U.S. politicies. They are by no means
exceptions.

In the National
Security Council, 7 out of 11 top staffers are Jews. Clinton
had especially placed them in the most sensitive junctions
in the U.S. security and foreign administrations: Sandy
Berger ist the deputy chairman of the council; Martin Indyk,
the intended ambassador to Israel, is a senior director in
charge of Western Europe; Don Steinberg, the senior director
and adviser to the president, is in charge of Africa;
Richard Feinberg, the senior director and adviser to the
president, in charge of Latin America; Stanley Ross, the
senior director and adviser to the president, is in Charge
of Asia.

The situation is
not much different in the president's office which is full
of warm Jews: the new Attorney General, Aberner Mikve (now
replaced the Jewess J. Reno); the president's schedule and
programs manager, Ricky Seidman; deputy chief of staff, Phil
Leida; economic adviser, Robert Rubin (now Minister of
Finance); media director, David Heiser; staff director,
Alice Rubin; Ely Segall, in charge of volunteers; Ira
Mezina, in charge of the health program. Two Cabinet
members, Labor Secretary Robert Reich and Micky Cantor in
charge of international trade agreements, are Jewish. They
are joined by a long list of senior Jewish officials in the
State Department, headed by the head of the Middle East
Peace Team, Dennis Ross, and followed by many deputy
secretaries and even more senior secretaries' chiefs of
staff.

One of the most
intersting Jews from the Israeli point of view, who has
rarely been exposed to view till now, is Rahm Emanuel,
Clinton's senior adviser in charge of coordinating special
projects in the White House. His office is located next to
the famous Oval Office ... He has a face that is more
suitable for an Israeli tourist than for a senior official
in the U.S. Administration. "You know, Rahm Emanuel is a
name that would not be out of place in the Tel-Aviv phone
directory," I told him. A large warm smile spread across is
face. "Our original name was Auerbach. We opened the first
pharmacies in Tel-Aviv and in Jerusalem ... Rahm and his two
brothers received a warm Jewish education ... Perhaps the
most intriguing thing that happened to me personally in the
course of the past year, since I have been posted in
Washington, was the meeting with the organized American
Jewry. The best place to see them as they are, the place
where I always came each year to admire them, is the annual
convention of the pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC. This is the place
not only to feel the pulse of American involvement in the
Middle East, but also where I felt that somehow it helps me
to ignore the deep distress inherent in the feeling of
loneliness of living in a state located in the heart of so
many hostile Arabs. I always asked myself what was the value
of the Jewish experience in America as far as Israel is
concerned. Did the identification with Israel derive from a
deep sensation of a common Jewish fate or was it one of the
tools of the local community to garner power for achieving
truly equal rights in a mixed society comprised also of many
emigrants and members of various faiths? Was the
Jewish power in the U.S. a phenomenon which will decrease or
to increase? Were the intermarriages of Jews with Gentiles
threatening to weaken the Jewish power in the U.S.? Or, so I
was sometimes afraid, were the American Jews building a new
Jewish cultural center that would compete with Israel?

"Adat Ysrael"
Synagogue in Washington is not only a place of worship. It
is a Jewish community center, with a prestigious Jewish
kindergarten, a Jewish school with Judaism, literature,
culture and of course, Hebrew classes. On Saturdays there
are always two seperate prayer sessions. The first is the
large one, encompassings hundreds of worshippers, which ends
in a food blessing at tables tastefully laid with Jewish
delicacies. Its members belong to the creme de la creme of
Washington society: senior administration officials,
successful lawyers, rich businessmen. All are wealthy people
... The entrance fee to synagogue is 1.000 U.S. Dollar for a
single holiday ... But the most important reason for their
praying is that they feel a close connection with Israel ...
The other synagogue competing for the young
generation of wealthy Jews is located in Georgetown ... Many
Jewish Administration officials pray there. They not only
don't try to conceil their religious affiliations but go to
a great length to demonstrate their Judaism since it may
help their careers greatly. The enormous Jewish influence in
Washington is not limited to the government. In the popular
programs on the TV are warm Jews ... Let us not forget in
this context the Jewish predominance in the Washington
academical institutions. At percentage in the population. In
the fields of security and science, in the film industry, in
art and in literature, the Jewish influence can only be
described as immense, with a corresponding enhancement of
the Jewish power ...

Where did they all spring from? In Israel we are already
accustomed to the names of the Jews called Dennis Ross, Dan
Kurtzer and Aharon Miller, since they have taken part in
each of the Secretary of State's visits to the Middle East
in the last six years. But that is a relatively new
phenomenon. When Dan Kurtzer, a pious Jew who observes the
Sabbath and all commandments of Judaism arrived at the
American State Department 18 years ago with a doctorate in
Middle East studies, he was told: "You have all the
qualifications to serve in the Middle East division, but
don't even think of suggesting it because of your Jewish
origin. "Today he is the boss of those who gave him that
piece of advice, so much had the Jewish power
increased meantime.

I phoned the State Department ... Suddenly
someone picked up the receiver and then I heard a voice
saying in perfect Israeli Hebrew: "Good Morning, how can I
help you?"

Rahm Emanuel: "The
Holocaust creates a sense of a destiny shared by all Jews.
The Jews must act to strenghen Israel so that the Holocaust
cannot be repeated" ... Today, when there is talk about 51
percent of interfaith marriages, the danger of assimilation
appears to be even greater, yet when examining the
phenomenon from close up one finds that the trend is
opposite ... Can Israel really sense that at a distance of
thousands of miles away is a flourishing Jewish center that
not only deeply admires and supports it, but also feels a
shared destiny with it? There is no doubt about it,
especially in the matters concerning its existence. All the
Clinton's Administration officials dealing with Israel;
Ross, Kurtzer, Indyk and Miller being just a sample, may
have different views concerning the desired solution for the
Israeli-Arab conflict but they are warm Jews in
whatever they do ... But they also firmly believe
that the shared interests between the two states (U.S.A. and
Israel) are fundamental and permantly enduring. It is
because of this deeply held belief that they made a huge
contribution to the fact that Clinton's Administration has
fully adopted their approach on the issue of relations
between the U.S. and Israel ...

The many Jews in
Clinton's Administration have not been created by a design,
but their large number is not due to chance either. The
American way of life supports the achievers ...
Although the Jewish power in the current Democratic
Administration is so huge, there are also many warm Jews
heading for the top position in the Republican
Party...

Clinton was also
made conscious by his many Jewish friends about the
distressing memory of the Holocaust, which still haunts the
leaders of the U.S. Jewish community and about its
importance for the continual support of Israel which is
obligatory on the U.S.

(London) -
1.11.1996, p. 5

(London) -
8.11.1996, p. 3

Backing a winner to
boost Jewish voice in the House

From J.J. Goldberg, New
York

Jewish
influence in Washington is likely to reach historic
highs following next Tuesday's Presidential and
Congressional elections, given the record number of
Jewish Senators likely to serve in the coming
Congress, and the all-but-certain return of Bill
Clinton to the White House.

President
Clinton has shown an extraordinary openness to Jews
and Jewish interests. In addition to his strong
support for Israel, he has appointed unprecedented
numbers of Jews to high positions, including four
in his 14-member Cabinet, two in the nine-member
Supreme Court, and even his director of the CIA,
John Deutch (Deutch is no longer CIA director). In
the Senate, the 10 Jewish members are likely to see
their ranks grow to 11 or 12 after November 5.

US-Israeli ties
might improve

By Stephanie
Genkin

Israeli
officials this week welcomed Bill Clinton's
reelection as US President, saying that they
expected the close relationship between Washington
and Jerusalem to be strengthened during the tough
search for peace in the Middle East ...

Professor
Doron: "But President Clinton is a good friend of
Israel. I don't think he would put pressure on Mr.
Netanyahu to take more risks than necessary ...
There may be small changes in style, but not in
substance"... Rabbi David Clayman: "Go back to the
days of [Secretary of State] Dean Rusk. No
Israeli government, despite dependence on the US
military, economically, psychologically, has ever
been pushed by a US Administration into a peace
process."

"The
Jewish World Congress has got a vast political and
economical influence and has got a say on all
political decisions in the
USA."

The above statement has
been made by the Secretary General of the Jewish World
Congress, Israel Singer. Singer is quoted in the book "Die
Deutschlandakte" ("The Germany File", edition ferency bei
Bruckmann, Munich 1995, p. 343), written by the Israeli
Professor Michael Wolffsohn (photo).

". . . there is a new brand of
Jew alive today that believes that G-d gave the Jew
power, and that power needs to be used and
exercised ... there will be no changes unless we
decide to take history into our own
hands."

(Dr. Israel Singer,
Secretary General of the World Jewish Congress, The Jewish
Press, February 20, 1998)

The Jews represent approx. 3 percent
of the American
population but occupy more or less 90 percent
of all the key positions in the US-Administration.